Image: Depiction of an O’Neill cylinder’s interior by artist Rick Guidice
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Week of July 27
Shrinking student populations cause spike in public school closures across U.S.
Washington Post, 7-20-26 [Trends]
School closures have spiked 35 percent across the country over the past four years, propelled by a shrinking youth population and the end of covid-19 relief funds that had propped up education funding in some places. For the fourth year in a row, the number of school closures rose nationally last year, according to data from the National Center for Education Statistics released last week. Districts closed more than 1,000 schools in 2025-26, compared with 755 in 2021-22. Nationally, federal projections indicate public school enrollment has already started to decline from its peak in 2019 and will continue to do so in coming years. From 2019 to 2031, schools were projected to lose nearly 4 million students. And those estimates were made before the Trump administration made changes to sharply curb immigration, further reducing the number of kids at some schools. Some districts are also coping with population shifts, as families move to the suburbs or other parts of the country.
Editor’s note: What are the local projections for school closures in the communities you serve, and how will the “Big Shrink” impact school visits and attendance, short and long term?
Can AI Ruin Something as Innocent as Birdwatching?
Gizmodo, 7-21-26 [Trends]
A letter [in the journal Nature] from a group of scientists based at Cornell and Manchester Metropolitan University discusses how a flood of AI-generated or enhanced images is undermining the utility of citizen science. As “citizen science platforms must mitigate against the threat of generative AI,” the paper explains, databases of crowd-sourced amateur data “increasingly underpin our knowledge about where species occur in space and time and how they behave.” Apps [like Merlin and iNaturalist] use machine learning to assist with the identification and classification of birds, relying on things like recordings of birds’ songs, records of geographical distribution, etc. They work impressively well, and provide a fine example of how useful machine learning can be in the right context. However, these platforms are of no use if they’re full of AI-generated nonsense, as is increasingly the case. The problem is worse because it’s self-perpetuating—it makes it more likely for even well-intentioned bird enthusiasts to make false observations, further degrading the pool of training data.
Editor’s note: The very first edition of CFM’s TrendsWatch report, back in 2012, looked at how the internet empowers museums to harness the “wisdom of the crowd,” inviting citizen scientists and citizen historians to contribute to their time and expertise. Might AI reverse that trend, whether through replacing the work of volunteers (for example, in transcription projects), or as this article illustrates, poisoning collaborative, crowdsourced data sets?
Recent Legal Developments Offer Encouragement for Employers Supporting DEI
Labor and Employment Law Insights, 7-17-26 [Good News]
Employers committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs have spent recent years navigating a hostile enforcement environment. Even against this backdrop, three recent legal developments offer meaningful encouragement for employers wishing to continue DEI initiatives. The Eleventh Circuit struck down the private employer provision in Florida’s Individual Freedom Act, commonly known as the “Stop WOKE Act,” which restricts certain training and instruction relating to race, sex, and national origin. The Ninth Circuit [has] affirmed a preliminary injunction reinstating research grants for a class of University of California researchers whose grants had been terminated because of their perceived connection to DEI viewpoints. The Southern District of New York granted summary judgment to plaintiffs on comparable claims arising from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and its mass termination of more than 1,400 grants. [These decisions] reflect a growing body of judicial precedent establishing that the government cannot terminate funding to punish [grant] recipients for their perceived association with DEI-related viewpoints.
This week on the CFM Blog:
AI Futures: The Cost of Doing Nothing
This third installment of CFM’s exploration of AI futures explores what’s likely to happen in museums absent organizational policies or gov. regulation around AI.
Recent weeks of Dispatches:
IRS Proposes Regulations Changing Education Institution 501(c)(3) Status
The Nonprofit Times, 7-14-26 [Trends]
New Internal Revenue Service (IRS) proposed regulations would “amend existing regulations under 501(c)(3) to clarify that certain schools that discriminate on the basis of race are not operated exclusively for charitable purposes,” according to a notice from the U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB). [The regulations] are still under review by OMB and have not been made public. [However, some clues to the contents of the regs can be found in the Treasury’s 2025-2026 Priority Guidance Plan, which advocates prioritizing] “the application of the fundamental public policy against racial discrimination in determining the eligibility of private schools for recognition of tax-exempt status under Section 501(c)(3).” According to Jeffrey S. Tenenbaum, managing partner of the Tenenbaum Law Group, “One of the key questions the charitable community is anxious to learn is how narrowly or broadly OMB and Treasury will apply the proposed regulations, namely, whether they will be limited racial discrimination by private schools or expanded more broadly to other types of 501(c)(3) organizations.”
Heads up: This is the latest in series of executive orders, actions, and agency policies that significantly impact the nonprofit sector. Revisit the CFM essay on the growing threats to nonprofit status, and think about how you might respond to the call for public comments, when the proposed regs are published.
In DATALAND, Refik Anadol Has Built a Museum That Learns From Its Audience
The Observer, 7-13-26 [Museum Innovations}
The world’s first A.I. museum, DATALAND, recently opened in L.A., [is] the brainchild of Refik Anadol, generally regarded as the world’s first A.I. artist. Upon entry. A massive space, the Data Pavilion, [features] imagery inspired by the Yawanawá rainforest of the Amazon. Composed of an algorithmic 12 chapters, each one focuses on different data subject to artistic experimentation, what Anadol calls “a living sculpture,” abstract patterns of biomes—flora, fungi, trees and finally rain. Scents provide olfactory data to complement visual imagery generated by the museum’s LNM (Large Nature Model), sourced from the Smithsonian, the American Museum of Natural History, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, the Natural History Museum in London as well as data collected by Anadol’s own team of scientists, architects, artists and engineers. The system responds to data emanating from viewers, transmitted by an electronic bracelet that measures heart rate and galvanic skin response indicating emotional arousal while LiDAR sensors on the walls calibrate movement.
Editor’s note: This looks like a great example of using ethically sourced data to create art that would only be possible via the use of AI (rather than replacing human creativity).
Tripling US union membership would shift $1.2tn to workers annually – report
The Guardian, 7-15-26 [Projections]
Tripling union membership in the US would lead to a 14.5% raise for the median US worker, shifting $1.2tn to workers annually and significantly narrowing racial wage gaps, according to a new report released on Wednesday. The report from the Economic Policy Institute notes that union membership rates across the workforce, also known as union density, was once three times as high as it is today. Despite the lower union density, public approval of labor unions has remained high in recent years, with more than 68% of Americans viewing unions favorably in 2025. More than 50 million US workers would join a union if they could. If union density in the US tripled to 30%, the median worker would see a 14.5% raise amounting to $7,700 annually – over $1.2tn annually to workers – or nearly $270,000 over a 35-year career. It would also narrow the racial wage gap and increase health insurance coverage. These changes would reverse one-third of the rise in inequality since 1979, according to the report.
Some museum context: According to the 2025 Art Museum Director Survey, unionized museums are more likely to find it extremely or somewhat easy to provide competitive pay packages than non-unionized museums (33 percent and 19 percent respectively). Nineteen percent of the 1,431 museums represented in the survey have unionized staff.
Under a new federal rule, colleges must leave grads better off or lose financial aid
from NPR, 7-9-26 [Projections]
This month, the U.S. Department of Education began rolling out a new accountability test that most colleges and universities will soon have to pass. The test itself is simple: If an undergraduate program’s graduates don’t earn more than workers who never went to college, that program could be cut off from federal student loans. The same goes for any graduate program whose graduates earn less than someone with only a bachelor’s degree. [Staff at] the Strategic National Arts Alumni Project (SNAAP), a nonprofit that studies the careers of arts graduates, worry the new test might lead colleges and universities to preemptively slash low-earning creative arts programs in music, theater, studio art and design. Doug Dempster, the president of SNAAP, says that could lead to a further devaluing of jobs that are critical to a well-functioning society.
What do you think? How might this rule impact undergraduate and graduate programs that prepare students for careers in museum careers with training in art, history, or education?
The new push to transform America’s racist landmarks
Axios, 7-13-26 [Trends]
Years after the backlash against Confederate monuments, new fights have emerged over what to do with remaining physical reminders of particularly hurtful racism — tear them down, preserve them, reinterpret them or return them to communities harmed by them. In Fort Worth, Texas, advocates are turning the former KKK Klavern No. 101 auditorium into an arts and community center named after a Black lynching victim, designed as a reparative justice project. Similar moves are unfolding across the country. The changes are happening at a time when the U.S. is more racially and ethnically diverse than ever — and as the Trump administration pushes federal sites and national parks toward a more “uplifting” version of American history. The clash has put local history projects in sharper relief — as federal interpretation of U.S. history narrows, cities, nonprofits and descendants are countering that by trying to preserve fuller stories on the ground.
Food for thought: how might museums act as organizers and mediators of efforts to create new civic symbols that, as one interviewee in this article puts it, teach understanding, love, and healing.
A One-on-One Date With a Museum’s Treasures
The New York Times, 7-5-26 [Museum Innovations]
Every day at the V&A East Storehouse in London, members of the public take artifacts into their hands, including vintage garments, modern design objects and ancient musical instruments. The Storehouse, which opened a year ago, was conceived as a warehouse for the Victoria and Albert Museum, Britain’s major institution for applied and decorative arts. Visitors can roam the aisles looking at items displayed on shelves, or use the Order an Object service to book some one-on-one time with an artifact. Conservators have assessed every item so that the museum staff knows if it’s safe for the public to to handle; if it’s too delicate, handlers either lay it out so that visitors can get up close, or take them to objects that can’t be moved. The idea has proved wildly popular. Over 660,000 people visited the Storehouse in its first year, and more than 15,000 of them used the Order an Object service.
The AI-inflected crisis artists are facing, in 4 charts
from Blood in the Machine, 5-8-26 [Trends]
Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University surveyed 378 professional visual artists to understand how visual artists feel that generative AI is impacting their careers. According to the survey, 99% of artists “disliked” AI; for 92%, the dislike was “strong.” 85% of artists completely abstain from using AI at all, and 88% percent refusal use AI to generate images. Participants viewed genAI as an intrusive technology within the creative domain. [The researchers] find that artists poorly receive genAI, while they are frequently faced with the artifacts of the technology; simultaneously, artists reject genAI by abstaining from the technology. Most artists say that they feel that they’re now competing with AI-generated artwork on the marketplace. Well over half say that they’ve lost income due to image generators, while an overwhelming majority feel that their livelihoods have become more precarious and insecure, and 90% feel that AI has taken away commissions, jobs, and career opportunities. AI appears to be a contributing factor to layoffs as well, and artists feel more generally that it’s eroded their power to negotiate with clients and bosses.
Editor’s note: how will AI impact the arts ecosystem in which art museums exist? How might the experience and opinions of artists impact museum policies regarding AI?
Science Philanthropy in a Democracy Under Pressure
from Stanford Social Innovation Review, 6-24-26 [Tools for the Future]
The United States is experiencing the most drastic attacks on science in its modern history, as the government imposes unprecedented budget cuts on federal research agencies, undermines transparency, and casts scientific expertise as partisan. For many in Brazil, this moment feels disturbingly familiar. In 2023, the country emerged from four years under President Jair Bolsonaro—a period that revealed what climate denialism and authoritarian populism look like when they take root in power. Bolsonaro’s government systematically dismantled Brazil’s research infrastructure between 2019 and 2022. Brazil, therefore, has already lived through what many other countries are now passing through or fear, and this experience offers painful but important lessons about how science philanthropy might act in times of political hostility. By supporting the preservation of public goods essential to science and democracy, using communication strategies that counteract polarization, and adopting a more coordinated and transnational approach to funding, philanthropy can be a stabilizing force.
Editor’s note: As author William Gibson famously said, “the future is already here, it’s just not very evenly distributed.” Brazil, where government funding for science (and the arts), has been dismantled, offers a temporal case study foreshadowing potential tools for the future in the US.
Smithsonian women’s museum launches new AR experience on National Mall
Blooloop, 6-19-26 [Museum Innovation]
The Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum has debuted a new augmented reality (AR) experience on the National Mall in Washington, DC. Launched to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the US, the ‘Unhidden Heroines’ AR experience brings to life the stories of five women who helped shape American history. It connects the women to iconic monuments on the National Mall, with visitors and users able to explore their stories through geolocation and custom 3D models. ‘Unhidden Heroines’ is also available remotely across the US from any smartphone or tablet through 31 December at unhidden-heroines.com. The legislation creating the Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum passed on 27 Dec 2020, and the museum is working with Congress to finalise a site for the physical building on the National Mall.
Editor’s note: in a possible future in which museums face growing censorship of signage and label copies, might AR provide a “back door” to sharing hidden histories?
This week on the CFM blog, with heatwaves sweeping across the US and other parts of the world, revisit Director of Archives and Collections at the 390th Memorial Museum Keith Cook’s post on steps museums can take to address rising temperatures.
U.S. Giving Hits $617B. Has Great Wealth Transfer Begun?
from The Chronicle of Philanthropy, 6-23-26 [Trends]
Donors gave U.S. charities $617 billion in 2025, an inflation-adjusted 3 percent increase over last year, according to “Giving USA 2026: The Annual Report on Philanthropy for the Year 2025.” Bequests last year jumped by nearly 17 percent, the third year of the last four to clock double-digit increases in this form of giving. The trend could signal the beginning of the long predicted Great Wealth Transfer — in which aging baby boomers begin passing their enormous wealth to their children and charities. Giving increased among all categories: corporations, living individuals, bequests, and foundations. The robust year in giving was propelled by consumer spending, growth in the gross domestic product, and especially a strong stock market. Education nonprofits saw an 8.9 percent uptick, organizations in the “public-society benefit” category had an 8.7 percent increase, and environment and animal nonprofits were up 8.2 percent. [A] smaller increases were seen for charities with missions involving arts, culture, and humanities (4.7 percent).
Go deeper: How will the new generation of donors who inherit this wealth direct their own giving? Read CFM’s analysis of the philanthropic future from the current edition of TrendsWatch.
National Coalition Against Censorship Launches Guide for “Defending Artistic Freedom”
from Glasstire, 6-21-26 [Tools for the Future]
The National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC), a New York-based nonprofit organization advocating on behalf of creative workers, has announced the launch of a free guide for artists and curators detailing strategies against censorship and in defense of free expression. The Artist’s Guide to Defending Artistic Freedom offers advice on preparing for potential censorship in advance and crafting arguments in support of artworks and exhibitions that have or may generate controversy within institutions or with audiences. The Guide begins by advising that artists and curators consider wall labels as a point of entry into the artwork’s intent, and that titles can play a key role in establishing context for institutional leaders and audiences to better understand what artists mean to convey. Other points of advice include keeping records of all communications with institutions, in order to bring wide attention to the situation, and explanations on the negative effects of censorship for institutions and the public.
Visitor attractions in the UK and France, including Tower Bridge and the Louvre museum, have closed their doors as a record-breaking heatwave sweeps across western Europe. Also closed to guests are the Eiffel Tower in Paris and the Young V&A in London, as France registers its hottest day ever and the UK experiences record heat for June. the Louvre said rising temperatures in the city have made “visiting and working conditions difficult during the hottest hours of the day”. The Young V&A museum closed on 23 June “due to extreme weather” and will reopen at 10am on 27 June. “Across the UK, sites including Chester Zoo and Longleat are closing at 2pm today [June 25]. Chester Zoo said its team of keepers will “make sure all of the animals and plants are safely cared for”. Climate change is pushing temperatures higher across the globe, particularly in Europe, which is the fastest-warming continent, according to the Copernicus climate service.
Editor’s note: A federal heat risk map shows that large parts of the United States could soon face dangerous, potentially life-threatening conditions, triple-digit heat index values forecast for dozens of states. Many museums may need to adjust hours, provide heat relief for visitors and neighbors, and protect staff and living collections.
A new archive of Dispatches
An archive of news stories is available to conveniently browse past roundups – covering from January 2026 onward, and older than the recent 5 weeks on this page.
Frequently Asked Questions
The Center for the Future of Museums Blog shares musings on the future of museums and society, where you’ll read posts authored by CFM director Elizabeth Merritt and guest author posts. If you have a story to share, email us at futureofmuseums [at] aam-us [dot] org.
Explore more resources from the Center for the Future of Museums in the AAM Resource Library.
The new annual TrendsWatch report has been released as the January/February 2026 issue of Museum magazine for AAM members and subscribers. Get a free preview here. It will be available as a free PDF report later this spring.
Dispatches shares summaries of recent news stories illuminating trends and events shaping society, technology, economics, the environment, and policy today. Fuel your museum’s strategic foresight by thinking about the implications of these “signals,” and the kinds of future they might create.
The most frequent categories that you’ll see articles filed under include: Tools for the Future, Museum Innovations, Projects, Trends, and Research.
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